Benue Govt Says It Couldn’t Guarantee Peter Obi’s Safety Over Missing Notification Letter
Benue State Commissioner for Information, Solomon Iorpev, has said Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate Peter Obi ignored established protocol ahead of his visit to the state on Tuesday, arguing that the failure to formally notify the state government left authorities unable to guarantee his safety.
Iorpev was reacting to the disruption of Obi’s convoy by youths in Makurdi, which forced the presidential candidate to abandon a planned condolence visit to communities affected by last year’s Yelwata killings. According to the commissioner, this was not the first time Obi had visited the state without officially informing the government of his plans, despite his standing as a former governor and high-profile political figure. He argued that given Obi’s status, protocol required him to formally communicate his visit to the state government in advance, allowing authorities to make appropriate security arrangements.
“A high-profile person who has been a former governor of a state is coming into the state; he should have written a letter to the State Government,” Iorpev said. He added that while the state government was ordinarily expected to guarantee the safety and protection of high-profile visitors, it could not do so in this instance because no formal notification had been received. “We are supposed to guarantee his safety and protection, but in an instance where no letter was written, we could not guarantee his safety,” he said.
Addressing the specific circumstances of Tuesday’s disruption, Iorpev said he was not personally aware of the identities of those responsible for blocking Obi’s convoy. He noted that Obi’s visit had coincided, apparently by chance, with a scheduled gathering of youths from across the state’s 23 local government areas, suggesting the timing may have contributed to the confrontation rather than it necessarily being a coordinated act against Obi specifically. “So, if they were coming from either Tarka, Gboko, Buruku, Ushongo, Konshisha or Vandeikya at the same time of his visit and blocked the road, it is unfortunate. I do not know the youths who did that,” he said.
The commissioner’s comments come amid competing accounts of Tuesday’s incident, with Obi’s party alleging that the thugs who blocked his convoy were sponsored by the state government or the ruling All Progressives Congress, allegations the state government has denied. The disruption marked the second time Obi’s movement in the state has reportedly been obstructed, following an earlier incident in April 2025 when Governor Hyacinth Alia warned Obi against making an unscheduled visit to internally displaced persons in the state.
The exchange forms part of a broader, ongoing friction between Obi and the Tinubu-aligned political establishment over the federal and state governments’ response to recent tragedies in the North Central region, with Obi having separately criticised President Bola Tinubu for not personally visiting either Benue or Niger State following major loss of life from attacks and flooding in both states in recent months. As of the time of reporting, the state government had not announced any formal investigation into the identities of those who blocked Obi’s convoy on Tuesday.
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